126 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 



holes, opening into cavities of the internal condyle, which forms 

 a globular expansion on that side within the cell, and upon which 

 the hollow fungilliform seed is moulded. The embryo is situ- 

 ated on the opposite or dorsal side, beneath an extremely thin 

 coating of simple albumen, which is convex on that face, while 

 it is extremely concave, very thick, and deeply cleft all over the 

 opposite side, the thin integuments entering into its numerous 

 anfractuosities. The embryo therefore partakes of the convexity 

 of the dorsal side, its small terete radicle pointing to that part 

 of the cell opposite to the style ; while its large cotyledons, of 

 very delicate texture, are divaricately separated on the same 

 plane, deeply laciniated all along their margins, and enclosed in 

 cells of the albumen of corresponding form. In analyzing this 

 seed, the greatest care is necessary in removing the thin plate 

 of albumen which covers the embryo; and it requires a previous 

 knowledge of its position in order to extract it entire, as the 

 force required to break away the albumen, which is solid be- 

 tween the sinuosities of the lacerations of the cotyledons, is 

 likely to injure it, — a caution that is requisite in examining the 

 seeds of the whole of the Heterocliniea. 



The authors of the ' Flora Indica ' place this genus in a dis- 

 tinct tribe {Cosciniea), on the ground that its petals are larger 

 than the sepals, and that the structure of the seed is different 

 from that of the Heterocliniea • but in this they have considered 

 the three inner sepals as petals, and they have relied upon 

 Gaertner's erroneous figure and description of the seed, not 

 choosing to place faith in my more accurate analysis, to which 

 they allude*. It will be seen that there is nothing in the struc- 

 ture at variance with all the other genera of the Heterocliniea, 

 except in the lacerated margins of the cotyledons : there are 

 therefore no grounds to justify the retention of the Cosciniece as 

 a distinct tribe, which view has been confirmed by the authors 

 of the ' Genera Plantarum,' who now reject it. The inner row 

 of sepals, considered as petals by the before-mentioned botanists, 

 differ in no respect in their form and appearance, except in size, 

 from the more external rows — a circumstance of uniform occur- 

 rence throughout the order. In Abuta we have exactly the same 

 number and arrangement of floral envelopes as in Coscinium, 

 and they have always been considered as sepals, which is proved 

 by the existence of the ordinary form of scale-like petals in Tilia- 

 cora, where all the other floral envelopes correspond with those 

 of Abuta. We may therefore conclude that in Coscinium, as in 



* After the publication of the ' Flora Indica,' I obtained, through the 

 kindness of Sir W. Hooker, fresli drupes of Coscinium, by which my 

 previous analysis of seeds given me by Prof. Lindley was completely con- 

 firmed. 



